Day 10: Falling in love with science at the San Francisco Exploratorium

The moment I stepped into the Exploratorium, I knew this will be something I would save for, for my nephew and niece to experience someday. The more than 1,000 interactive exhibits brought back my excitement over science once again.  Mary and I were back to our childhood and were ready to explore!

Snoozing while waiting for the museum to open

The Exploratorium has several galleries , to indulge our senses. My favorite gallery is the Human Phenomena Gallery, which is located close to the entrance. The experiments allow you investigate and find out more about your feelings, memory, behaviour and personality. It would have been cool if we had them in our psychology classes before!  Another favorite is the Light and Sound gallery where you get to play around with your shadow or high five with upside-down hologram-like image. There is also the the Tinkering gallery where visitors can do experiments on electricity, magnetism and the likes. Here you will also find the 100,000 toothpick sculpture which shows the different San Francisco landmarks. The Living Systems gallery is about learning about the different livings things, once again- just like in grade school and high school- only better.  Then there is also the Bay Observatory Gallery and the Outdoor Gallery.

A happy day for my nerdy self.  Science rocks! Yeah baby! 

Day 9- Duck Tour! :)

Floram and Clarisse left for Vancouver early in the morning.  It was just me and Mary, who took 2 days off so she can be with me.  To humor ourselves, we did the duck tour!  

I have always wondered what a duck tour would be like.  There was one in Singapore but I never tried it. All I know is that you get to ride a vehicle which travels both on land and water.

It turned out to be a fun ride.  Our "Captain" is a hilarious guy who gave us very interesting information as we went through the major historic streets of San Francisco (which we should reward, btw, by blowing the duck whistles every now and then). It's a great way to get an overview of the city. Our very energetic captain drove us around the Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, Ghirardelli Square, Union Square, and many other places.

And then we splashed down into the bay.  Children (and some adults) had fun driving the "duck" themselves.  We enjoyed the view of the city, the Bay Bridge and the Ballpark.  

Cape Hudson and the Bay Bridge

Lovely seals!

All in all, it was one fun, quacky ride! Then it was time for late lunch at Applebees. 

(Note: As of September 2015, the Ride the Ducks , has stopped its operation in San Francisco).

USA Day 8: Reunion..almost over.

Gina left for Orange county yesterday. We dropped her off at the Sacramento airport after dinner.  Then the rest of us spent the night at Rocklin where we spent some time (and money) at the casino (well, they all won something- and I was the only unlucky one..hmph!).

Gina's send off at Sacramento Airport

We went to church in the morning- and then of course, girls will always be girls- so we went to Vacaville for some shopping.  But before that, we met for lunch at a Japanese buffet resto with another high school friend, Agnes, and my college friend Gerry ( who happened to be Agnes' friend too- small world!) . 

And the rest of the day was spent checking out the outlet shops and buying some stuffs. 

And then Kate drove us again to Hayward. And then Kate had to go back home.  And we could definitely feel our reunion coming to an end.

At night, Floram and Clarisse had this brilliant idea of buying our dinner from a nearby Jollibee fast food.  They soo missed Jollibee because they dont have it in Canada--while I was sooo not into Jollibee- because we have it at every corner back in the Philippines.  Anyways, the Canadians won because they were paying for the dinner:). 

And it was time for them to pack-up. So sad. 

USA Day 7: Napa Valley High

I have always loved vineyards, country home on a rolling hill, gourmet cheese and wine. That's why I got such a high when we went to  Napa Valley.  It is everything I wanted a place to be. 

At the "Welcome to Napa Valley" sign...I was there! :)

Napa valley is a famous wine-producing region and we drove through vast vineyards. They have just planted grapes when we visited- which was too bad because I would have loved to see grapes hanging down from the vines.

Despite the grape vines not having grown yet, they still make for a very scenic landscape. Plus,  the wine train with vineyards on the background looked very romantic- just like the windmills. 

We went to the V. Sattui winery, which has been around for 125 years and whose wines are only available in their winery and not anywhere else. They have rustic Italian buildings and a beautiful, grassy picnic ground. It was busy during the time of our visit, with groups of people coming for wine tasting.  
.  

The store is more crowded - there were many of us looking for, not just wines and grape juice, but also delis, gourmet cheese, crackers, and salad dressings. Gina got me a raspberry flavored cheese and Mary also got me a bottle of Chardonnay (thanks , girls!). 

After a quick picnic at the garden, we headed to Castello di Amorosa, another winery owned by Sattui. The Italian castle on top of a hill would make you feel like you are in the medieval time. 

What can I say but..I love you Napa Valley!! 

USA Day6- Beautiful Yosemite

Alluring, dazzling, delightful, exquisite, fascinating, gorgeous, grand, magnificent, marvelous, splendid, stunning, sublime. Words are not enough to describe the beauty of Yosemite.  I have always thought of Yosemite as a river- I did not know it is a beautiful valley of granite domes, wilderness and waterfalls.

Hayward to Yosemite was a 3 hour drive- a task which Kate happily took. I enjoyed the view of the big farms and the buildings and houses in small towns, which I see in cowboy movies.  

Off to Yosemite

Big bears manning the small gas store

After 3 hours of singing and eating and catching up and napping in between, we finally arrived at the entrance of the park. There is a nice river by the entrance. We went down to the big boulders on the river - where we put our selfie stick to good use. 

The deeper we go deeper into the Yosemite valley, the better it got  as we got closer to the rock formations. 

I was stunned by the glistening granite formation of the El Capitan. I was looking up at the "largest monolith of granite in the world", towering over us at more than 3,000 feet above the floor. In one short profound moment, it made me realize how small I am in the grander scheme of things. Humbling. 

The "Chief"

We parked at the Village Store, had our lunch and  took the bus to explore the other parts of Yosemite valley.

We got off the bus at the stop near the Bridalveil Falls and hiked the easy trail through the trees, by the stream and through a bridge.  The waterfalls was named so because of its flow resembling a bride's veil swaying in the wind. There was not as much water though, because there was drought in California when we visited.  

We hiked back and spent more time exploring and taking pictures of the Half Dome and the other magnificent rock formations. It is simply lovely, everywhere I looked. 

`

We went back to the Village Store, where we had lunch earlier and where we were parked, grabbed some souvenirs and prepared to head to Sacramento, where we will spend the night.

On our way, we stopped by the tunnel view to marvel at the panoramic view of Yosemite. Not for the last time because I will make sure to be back, next time on a winter, to see the glacier.

Hasta la vista Yosemite!